The Harvard Mystery
by blondehairedknowitall
Summary: Avengers/Harry Potter zombie apocalypse. Aurelia Afinson, a new S.H.I.E.L.D agent, is given the task of leading the world's best in an effort to save humanity from the biggest disaster to ever hit the Earth. Their mission inevitably leads them to the infamous Harvard University, but why is it so heavily guarded and what secrets lie behind its walls?
1. Chapter 1

It had been nearly a month since the first victims and now zombies were swarming all over the world. The first country affected was America, closely followed by Canada and South America. Precautions had been set up and both continents were quarantined, but somehow it managed to spread to Europe and inevitably the rest of the world. Scientists theorised it could've been an airborne virus or a waterborne virus that spread. Conspiracy theories claimed that the American government had released the virus in the first place, and now the country was quarantined they wanted to see how it could spread across the world, others thought that maybe the zombies had floated their way across the Atlantic somehow, but they never theorised how.  
Governments had gone down into their bunkers within the first few days of infection and within a couple of week's army bases all over the world were on lockdown, including S.H.I.E.L.D., but the Avengers had refused to keep their heads down. Agent Clint Barton had been killed saving school children from a hunting pack and ever since Agent Natasha Romanoff had gone rogue; no-one knew if she was dead or alive. Captain America was on a secret mission that not even Tony Stark or Bruce Banner knew about.  
I was now on my way to a meeting point in Boston, near Harvard University. The university had been under protection by armed guards within less than a day of the first outbreak and the guards shot both the living and the dead. Conspirators thought that the university was the President's secret bunker, in my opinion it didn't seem likely, but then I had to ask myself the question, why was it so closely guarded?  
Anyway, that wasn't important right now, I was supposed to be meeting two men in a back alley close to the university and I had to keep my head down.  
I only came across a few stray zombies in the street as the main hunting packs only came out at night, but I shot them all with a single bullet to the head, quickly and quietly.  
As I slowly entered the alley I noticed that there were four figures instead of two. They seemed to be still, but I couldn't tell if they were zombies or human, so for safety I carefully drew out my gun and approached them while using dumpsters for cover. As I did, I tripped over a bin lid that made a loud crash, the four immediately looked in my direction and I held my breath as I leaned against a dumpster.  
I heard a single set of footsteps approach, they weren't dragged out and they seemed light, not like a zombie's, but I still kept my position to make sure.  
They stopped and I knew that whoever it was must be standing right next to the dumpster I was leaning against. Another step was taken so I could just about see that it was a man who was in perfect health. I let out a deep breath and the man looked down at me, a little startled by the noise.  
'Was that you?' He asked. He sounded British, like me, but he looked like he'd just come out of a completely different world. There was no evidence on him of the month of hardship that everyone around the world must've suffered, and he was wearing strange clothes made up of mainly leather and bits of gold metal with hints of green cloth in places.  
'Yes,' I answered, curiously studying him.  
He nodded, looking relieved and helped me up, 'are you the one that was meant to be coming here to pick two people up?'  
I nodded, 'yes, are you one of the one's I was supposed to pick up?'  
The man shrugged, 'well I am now. Come on, the others are waiting.'  
We both headed towards the other three and the sun came out revealing all of their faces.  
The man who had helped me up had long black hair slicked back and deep emerald green eyes, much like the green cloth in his clothes.  
The tallest man wore strange clothes like the black haired one, but they seemed to be made up of mainly leather and silver metal. Intricate links of it were joined up and covered his huge muscly arms and he had a long deep red cape which reached to the ground. I also noticed that he held a large hammer, firmly gripped in his hand. He looked really muscly all over and he had long blonde hair with a blonde beard and blue eyes. He was quite the opposite of the black haired one.  
The other two looked normal. Normal for the situation.  
The first wore slightly damaged glasses and a mangled purple shirt. His hair was brown and messy with hints of grey in it and he looked like he hadn't slept in a while. He'd also grown a dark grey stubble.  
I recognised the shortest of the four. He wore richer looking clothes but they were now a mess from whatever trouble he went through to get here. He had a beard that was shaped and a stubble was growing in places that were normally clean shaven.  
As he grinned at me I rolled my eyes, 'it's just my luck to get you, Stark!'  
Tony laughed and shrugged, 'well at least I got you.'  
I rolled my eyes again, 'I thought there were only going to be two of you? Who are the others?'  
'This is Doctor Bruce Banner,' he said pointing to the one in the purple shirt, 'the one with the massive hammer is Thor, and that's reindeer games.'  
The black haired one scowled at him. 'Loki,' he told me.  
'Nice to meet you, Loki,' I smiled, 'I'm Aurelia Afinson.'  
Tony laughed, 'what kind of name is Afinson anyway?'  
Now _I_ scowled at him, 'it's Norwegian, my father was Norwegian. Now, why are there four of you?'  
'Well, it was supposed to just be me and Stark,' Bruce piped up, 'but then these two dropped out of the sky again.'  
'My brother and I are from the realm of Asgard, my father Odin sent us to help in this crisis,' Thor told me.  
'I see, quite interesting then. We may have the upper hand.'  
'I don't know, they're apparently drawing in on our food supplies,' Bruce sighed.  
'There's a secret chain coming into the harbour from England and four Brits are coming over to help us,' I explained.  
'Four of them?' Tony asked.  
I nodded in reply.  
'More mouths to feed…' he mumbled under his breath.  
I ignored him and carried on to explain to the others, 'they're not just any four people, they're wizards, and the best wizards there are.'  
'Wizards?' Tony asked in disbelief, not quite sure I was serious.  
'Yes, wizards with magic wands,' I said sarcastically, dumbing it down, 'there was an incident where a dark wizard known as Lord Voldemort took over the wizarding community and three of the four helped take him down. Harry Potter in fact was the one to lay the final blow.'  
'So if wizards are real how come we've never heard of them?' Tony asked again.  
'Because it's their law to keep themselves a secret. Only our prime minister and the top MP's know about them in the UK.'  
'Then how do _you _know?'  
'I was in MI6 before I was transferred to S.H.I.E.L.D., now are you going to continue to ask unnecessary questions out in the open or are we going to move for cover?'  
'Yeah, we should go… Then I'll bombard you with more questions,' Tony grinned.  
'There's a van waiting on the other side of the university, we make our way there and then we're driving to a safe house out of town,' I explained, ignoring Tony.  
Now all five of us made our way through alley ways and quiet streets to the van where we began our journey.


	2. Chapter 2

Now in the safety of the house, Tony continued to bombard me with questions, as promised. I answered them all, not letting on at how fed up I was with him already, I hoped that he'd just get bored with my apparent lack of aggravation. I could tell that Loki was getting fed up of his constant questions, but no-one else seemed to notice, least of all Tony.  
What looked like smoke to the untrained eye formed outside and I got up to look out of the window, taking no notice of Tony's last question, to see four plumes hit the ground with a loud crack behind a screen of trees.  
'What on Earth was that?' Bruce exclaimed.  
'It's the four we've been waiting for. They've apparated into the woods, probably from the harbour.'  
'What's that?' Loki asked, speaking for the first time since we'd left the alley way.  
'Apparation is their way of transport. It's basically the magical action of travelling by focusing on a location and then disappearing and instantly reappearing at the desired location.'  
'Sounds interesting…' he smiled, looking quite thoughtful.  
We saw two boys and a girl appear out of the trees, they looked about nineteen years old and then another woman wearing a sickly pink suit came wobbling out. Her hair was a mess and she was gripping her wand tightly.  
'So, they're the four greatest wizards alive?' Tony asked.  
'Well, not exactly. The three younger ones are, but the one in pink is just a bit of a cow actually. I don't even know why the ministry sent her.' I turned to go to the door when Thor interrupted me.  
'I thought there were only four coming?'  
I looked again to see a middle aged man and woman stumble out of the trees looking white as a sheet. I sighed, 'well, it's only two more, I suppose. The more the merrier…'  
I walked into the hall to unbolt the lock and the six of them ran to the door.  
'Hello, I'm Harry Potter, you must be Aurelia Afinson?' he asked, shaking my hand.  
I nodded, 'yes, and your friends, they must be Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger?'  
Hermione came forward, 'yes, that's us. I'm sorry we hit a problem at the harbour and found a stowaway,' she pointed to the middle aged man.  
Before I could speak the one in the pink suit rushed forward, 'I told them we should leave him, but they wouldn't listen!'  
To me, she sounded quite hysteric.  
'With all due respect we couldn't just leave him there,' Harry snapped.  
She shot him a dirty look, 'may I remind you that you just told an unnecessary muggle of our existence.'  
I cut in, 'may I remind _you_, that you are mostly surrounded by muggles.'  
Ron walked past me to go and sit down and I heard him mutter 'a zombie should just eat her and do us all a favour.'  
I silently laughed at his remark. 'So, what about her?' I asked about the woman.  
Hermione explained that she was a scientist and she believed that she may be of some help. 'She's quite brilliant, actually.'  
'Fair enough, if you think she could help then I'm good with that. Have you brought the food rations?' I inquired, seeing that she only had a medium sized carpet bag with her.  
'Oh, yes!' she said, starting to root through the bag. Surely she couldn't fit much food in there? She started to pull out several large packages and handed them to Harry.  
'How did you fit all that in there?' I wondered, amazed.  
'It's bigger on the inside, much bigger!' she explained.  
I noticed that the two muggles – as they called them – were deathly pale and now swaying, 'what's wrong with them two?'  
'They're feeling the aftermath of apparation. It's horrible apparating for the first time, but give them an hour or two and they'll be fine,' Harry told me.  
I nodded, 'well, I better introduce you lot to the other four in there.'  
We headed into what was supposed to be the living room of the old house to find Tony lounging on the sofa, Bruce fiddling with his fingers on the chair and Thor and Loki talking by the window. I coughed to get their attention and introduced everybody.

It took a few hours for the two middle agers to come round and then they introduced themselves as Jack Tyler and Ava Harrison. Jack had fluffy light blonde hair while Ava had brown hair in tight curls.

* * *

**Ok, so I know it's only chapter 2, but how am I doing? I don't really like writing in first person, but it seemed to fit the story, I just want to know if I'm doing ok with it. **


	3. Chapter 3

It had been a week since we'd arrived and everything was running smoothly. Luckily, Thor and Loki didn't take as much food as the rest of us; Thor said they didn't need to eat as regularly as us.

Tony had inevitably started to flirt with Hermione, and as a result, Ron had hexed him. They were in the kitchen supposedly talking, when I walked in to hear Ron mutter 'densaugeo' at him. A bright jet of light hit Tony and knocked him to the floor, when he'd gotten up his teeth were growing at an alarming rate, and they were starting to elongate and grow towards the bottom of his chin.

'Nice one!' I felt myself say amongst laughter.

Ron just grinned at me as Tony stormed out covering his mouth with his hands and I heard him run up the stairs and slam a door behind him. 'I don't think he'll be looking at anyone for a while!' I laughed.

The kitchen door opened and Harry and Hermione walked in, 'what's so funny?'

'Oh, nothing much,' I smiled.

They both gave us a funny look, but Hermione let it go, 'we were wondering if you'd want us to put protection charms around the house?'

'What do you mean?' I asked.

'Well, we could try and cast an anti-muggle spell around the place, it'd mean that anyone that comes by would instantly forget why they were there and just turn away from the house,' she explained.

'Would it work on the dead though?'

Hermione shrugged, 'I have no idea, but it would be worth a try, right?'

I nodded, 'yes, I suppose. Do whatever you think is best.'

All three of them ran out and began casting spells outside, so I decided to go back into the living room. Bruce and Ava were talking mainly about science, and Jack and Thor were playing a board game of some sort. I noticed that Loki was sitting by the window watching Harry, Ron and Hermione casting their spells. I decided to go over and talk to him, seeing as everyone else was busy.

'Hey, how are you?' I smiled, sitting down next to him.

He shrugged, 'I'm fine…'

'Good, so?' I asked, trying to prompt him.

He looked like he was trying to stop himself from rolling his eyes and then sighed loudly before asking, 'how are you?'

'I'm good thank you.'

We now sat in silence, it seemed ironic that I was the one trying to get him to speak, but now I didn't know what to say. I looked around the room at the others, 'say, where's Umbridge?'

Loki looked around the room with me, 'I don't actually know.'

Screaming came from outside followed by a loud bang and we turned to see red jets of light fly into the sky and explode, followed by more screaming and shouting.

Loki and I ran outside to find out what was going on, to see Harry, Ron and Hermione pointing their wands at Umbridge while she had her wand pointed up in the air.

'ARE YOU MAD!? YOU JUST GAVE AWAY OUR POSITION!' Harry roared at her.

Umbridge didn't react to Harry's shouting, but instead turned to me, 'you don't have a clue what you're doing! You haven't even got a plan and all we do is sit here waiting for our food to run out.'

'What, so your plan is to let _us _become food?!' I screamed at her.

'They will take their time to come here and by then you _will _have a plan.'

I ran at her but Loki grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back, 'she could kill you before you even take a step towards her! Just think, Aurelia.'

I buried my head into his chest to conceal my anger and frustration. I could hear Harry shout 'Expelliarmus' and Umbridge scream out.

'We all need to get back inside and calm down,' I turned out of Loki's chest to see Bruce in the doorway and the others standing behind him.

'Get her and take her out of my sight!' Harry said through gritted teeth.

* * *

We'd locked Umbridge in the kitchen without her wand, then we began to build a barricade around the front door. We boarded up the windows down stairs and Tony was taking the post as watchman, upstairs, as he still refused to be seen by anyone.

It was only a matter of time before they came.

Everything was set and now all we could do was sit and wait for them to come. Every now and then we could here Umbridge shouting for us to let her out, but it felt easy for us all to drown her out. Ron had suggested a body binding curse which made Harry laugh, but Hermione shook her head, 'you know we'll need her when the time comes.'

I sighed, knowing she was right and my stomach churned at the thought of what came next.

* * *

It had been an hour and Tony finally shouted down that there was movement in the trees. We all armed ourselves; the wizards with their wands, Thor with his hammer and the rest of us with guns.

We got lucky, it was only a slow moving scout pack, but they could be just as dangerous if they got their teeth into you.

Tony, Ava, Bruce, Harry and Hermione went upstairs for a long distance attack while the rest of us waited down stairs by the windows.

Upstairs they'd killed half the pack and now it was our turn. We all took our positions when suddenly Umbridge lunged for the hall.

'What the hell are you doing!?' I screamed.

'I don't have to answer to a muggle and I'm not taking orders from you! If anyone is going to give out orders, it's me!'

'You're going to get us all killed, that's what you're going to do!' Ron shouted at her.

She didn't listen and instead headed for the door.

'You three stay there,' I told Thor, Loki and Jack, as me and Ron ran after her.

Ron and Umbridge were both aiming their wands at each other, neither one making the first move.

'Ok, just calm down, the both of you. Now is not the time, ok?'

'Now is the perfect time!' Umbridge grinned.

'Oh my God, you're insane!' I shouted, 'what the hell is wrong with you?!'

A hand suddenly smashed through the door and the pile of chairs, causing them to fall on Umbridge, the arm came back through and gripped her by the neck, pulling her violently into the door, nearly breaking her neck. I shot at it several times but it had no effect it just kept slamming her backwards and forwards into the door, then several more arms smashed through the door grabbing and pulling at her.

'Aurelia, we have to fall back, there's no saving her!' Ron shouted.

'NO! Don't leave me here, don't leave me here to die!' Umbridge screamed as she was being thrust backwards and forwards.

'Loki, Thor, Jack, we need to get upstairs, now!' I shouted into the living room.

They all ran into the hall and the colour in Jack's face drained as he saw Umbridge being thrust around like a ragdoll. As we ran up the stairs Umbridge's screaming got louder and louder until it ceased with the sound of tearing flesh. A floorboard gave way which sent Jack tumbling back down the stairs, breaking his neck and killing him instantly. I turned to see zombies swarming over his broken corpse, which somehow propelled me up the stairs even more, with Loki holding my hand dragging me up; everything was a daze and I didn't even feel Loki grab my hand.

We all finally got to the top in what seemed like the longest run in history and Hermione came flying out of a bedroom screaming 'Bombarda Maxima!' at the stairs. A white spurt of light came from her wand and the stairs blew up sending pieces of wood flying into the pack of zombies decapitating a large amount of them.

There was a moment of silence, and then the sound of creaking, before the floor beneath Ron's feet gave way and collapsed. He had hold of the floor and Hermione immediately ran forward to grab his hand. Thor and Loki both rushed forward but the sound of teeth crunching into bone stopped them. Ron let out a cry of agony and let go of the floor, but Hermione still held onto him.

'Hermione, you've got to let me go,' he grimaced.

'No, we can help you!' she said in a panicked cry.

'No, Hermione, you know you've got to.'

'I don't, we'll lift you up and… and… I don't know… but we'll figure something out!' Hermione had now began shaking as tears streamed down her face, 'please, Ron, let me help you up!'

Harry ran out of the room and dropped to his knees beside Hermione to grab Ron's other hand, 'God what's happened!?'

'Harry, I've been bitten, let me go!'

'Harry, don't you dare let him go!' Hermione half screamed.

'Hermione, I love you,' Ron smiled at her.

'No, don't you dare Ronald Weasley, don't do this to me!'

'Hermione, let him go,' Harry said gently, still holding Ron's other hand.

'I love you too…' she blubbered back to Ron.

'Harry, you better promise me you'll look after her and Ginny.'

'You know I will, I promise.' Harry let go of his hand, pulling Hermione away and Ron slipped down.

'No, Ron!' Hermione practically dropped into Harry in floods of tears.

Harry himself was crying, but he focused himself on calming Hermione's frantic sobs. He took her into an empty room and from inside we could hear her wails.

I stood looking down at the floor in silence for a moment, trying to take in what had happened, while the others shot the remaining zombies like fish in a barrel.

'Aurelia, are you ok?' I felt Loki's cold hand on my shoulder trying to comfort me.

I looked up at him, finding tears rolling down my cheeks, 'I… I've… This is the first time I've seen someone die and… and then three die in the space of five minutes!' I felt my breathing increase as Loki pulled me into his chest.

'It's ok,' he whispered as I closed my eyes tight shut.

* * *

vwebb: thanks for the advice, I'll try and take it into consideration :)


	4. Chapter 4

I woke up in Loki's lap with him stroking my hair and everyone else standing around me.

'What happened?' I asked, trying to sit up, but Loki held me down and I felt unable to resist.

'You fainted,' Bruce explained, 'and I'm not surprised, you haven't been eating, have you?'

I looked away guiltily and closed my eyes in shame while shaking my head.

'Why?' Bruce strained.

'Because the food won't last forever and I'm not exactly the most important person here.'

'We're all as important as each other, and it doesn't mean you have to starve yourself to conserve food! What if you'd fainted while running up the stairs just then? You would've put your own life at risk and others.'

'I know, I'm sorry, I-I just didn't think!' I took a deep breath and hid my face.

'Well you better start thinking because three people are dead!'

'Bruce, calm down, ok? Just breathe,' I heard Tony come from the other side of the room out of the shadows. His teeth had now shrunk down, I assumed that either Harry or Hermione had used the counter-curse on him. 'Just let her rest, what we need to focus on now is getting our food from downstairs before another pack comes and more of us are killed.'

Bruce nodded, 'I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me...'

'We're all feeling a little edgy after what's just happened and we're all dealing with it in our own ways,' Ava smiled, placing a hand on Bruce's shoulder. 'Now, I suggest that we should put our brains together and start thinking on how we can come up with a cure for this virus.'

'Where would we start though?' Bruce asked.

'I knew a scientist who was nearly there, but he got bitten before he could finish and he intrusted his notes to me. We could start with deciphering his notes.'

As Bruce and Ava began to search through the papers I felt my stomach burn, and felt the need to ask, 'what about the food? If you're going to get it, then now would be the best time.' My voice sounded hoarse and for the first time I felt like I needed food; more than that, I wanted food.

Tony nodded, 'me and Thor will go down.' He looked at Loki and frowned a little, 'it looks like you need him…' he directed to me.

Loki looked down at me, 'er... I should go with them.'

I couldn't help it, maybe Tony was right, and maybe I did need him? Or maybe I was just selfish. I grabbed Loki's hand and let out a feeble 'no' in an attempt to make him stay.

Loki smiled down at me, 'Aurelia, I need...'

'No, you should stay with her; she needs someone to watch over her and you're the only one available.' Tony left the room to get Thor, leaving Loki with no opportunity to argue back. Instead he just calmly stroked my hair and stared out of the window aimlessly.

'I'm sorry, I just wanted you to stay,' I murmured.

Loki looked down at me, 'why did you want me to stay?'

'I just… I guess I just feel safe with you,' I admitted.

Loki let out a bitter half laugh, 'you feel safe with _me_?'

I nodded, 'yes, why shouldn't I?'

'You do know who I am, don't you? You do know what I've done?'

'Of course I do, but why should that matter now? We're under different circumstances and you've come here to help.'

Loki frowned at me slightly, 'you'd let everything I've done slip, all because we're under different circumstances?'

'I guess so, you're not trying to kill any of us now though,' plus you're kind of hot, I mentally thought and smiled to myself.

'What is it?' Loki asked, a frown appearing on his face.

'Nothing really…' I grinned, closing my eyes and turning into him to hide my face.

'Oh is that so?' he smiled.

I looked up to see a smile spreading wide across his face. 'What are you smiling at?'

'Well, I just asked you near enough the same question and you lied to me, do you really expect me – the God of Lies – to answer truthfully?'

'I didn't lie... I just evaded telling you the truth, that's all.'

Loki smirked at me, 'well, you could say I'm doing the same thing.'

I frowned to myself; he had me. 'Fine then,' I sighed.

'I'll do you a deal, if you tell me, I'll tell you.'

'I- no! No, it doesn't matter…'

'Ah, so it must be something quite embarrassing on your part, otherwise you would've told me.'

'You've got me again… can we just leave it at that?'

'Oh come on!' he chuckled, 'it can't be that bad, can it?'

'You know what, I'm just tired and hungry…' I could feel the blood pulsing through my cheeks and Loki's triumphant smile gave away that I was blushing.

'So it is that bad!'

'No! Just no. Please, can we just leave it?'

Tony and Thor came bursting back in with the food reserves before Loki could reply, much to my relief.

'There's another pack headed for us. I'd say they'll be about fifteen minutes,' Thor said, slightly out of breath.

'Hunters or scouts?' I asked, the relief gone.

'I'd say hunters, but there's only about ten of them,' Tony responded.

'I suppose we could take them out from a distance then?'

'Yes, but they're still in the tree line.'

'They'll be waiting then, hunters very rarely attack in the day unless it's an easy target. Let's just hope that no more join them.'

'We found out in a case near London that hunters are also weaker in the day, just as scouts are weaker at night,' Hermione explained, coming in with Harry. Her voice sounded choked and her eyes were red and blotchy from crying.

'What are you suggesting?' Tony queried.

'I suggest that we attack them now before they attack us; they won't be expecting that.'

'No,' I ruled, standing up shakily. 'We don't know for sure how many there are, Tony thinks there are about ten, but there could be more further behind the tree line.'

'Which is exactly why we should attack. Just one or two of us so we can flush them out, see how many there are and pick them off quite easily.'

'You want to go, don't you?'

Hermione looked at me with determination written all over her face and nodded.

'No,' I calmly ruled, 'you only want to go because of what happened to Ron, you're thinking irrationally and I won't let you do anything stupid like this. It's a suicide mission and we need you; we need everyone we can get.'

'Yes, but that-'

'Enough! We've still got six to seven hours until sunset, we need to explore every other option before wasting more lives.'

Hermione turned on her heal and walked out of the room without another word. Harry stood in the doorway and sighed, 'I'm sorry about her, she's just grief stricken, that's all.'

'I know, now go after her, she needs you.'

Harry nodded to me and left after her.

'Now, you need to eat,' Loki said, sitting me down.

I let out a sigh and agreed.


	5. Chapter 5

It had been three hours and still no movement from the trees. I had now been well fed and was feeling better. I stood pacing in front of the window not knowing what to do.

Bruce, Ava and Tony were working in the study and Harry was still with a sulking Hermione in the other bedroom, while Thor and Loki were with me in the main room overlooking the front yard and the forest.

'What should we do?' I sighed exasperated.

'I think that Hermione is right, despite her current feelings,' Thor replied, carefully.

I stopped pacing and looked at Thor, 'you think that a suicide mission is the right way to go?'

Thor shook his head, 'no. I think that if we organize this properly then we can kill them all and come out of this alive.'

I thought for a moment at what he'd just said and a way we could get to them without them noticing before it was too late, 'if we can think of a good plan, then yes.'

Loki, who had been sitting in the corner quietly, stood up and finally spoke, 'the tree's at the back of the house are thinner, so we haven't seen their value, but they'd still shield us and the line stretches around the whole house near enough. If one or two of us stood on the porch and the rest of us got to the trees in line with the house then-'

'Then we could run round and attack them from behind!' Thor finished.

Loki looked at Thor annoyed and nodded, 'yes, that would be the plan.'

'I think it's a good plan if we can pull it off, but it needs to be done quickly,' I replied.

'I suggest that Bruce and Ava stand on the porch as they're more valuable to us and the rest of us attack,' Loki said.

'Yes, if the hunters do decide to attack then at least they're far enough away so that Bruce and Ava can safely get back inside and wait for us. I mean the plan could still work if that happened, we'd still be attacking from behind and Bruce and Ava would be attacking from the front; it could work even better for us.'

Thor and Loki agreed with me, so we told the plan to the others and started to arm ourselves.

* * *

Bruce and Ava waited patiently on the porch while the rest of us climbed down the back window and snuck through to the trees.

Harry and Hermione took the lead under Harry's invisibility cloak and every now and then they'd come back reporting that the way was still clear.

It was so quiet and eerie walking further into the trees. As we walked further the trees got thicker and thicker and things seemed to get eerier and eerier.

We started to hear the moaning that usually came from zombies and stopped in our tracks.

'What should we do? Why hasn't Harry or Hermione come back yet?' Tony breathed.

'We'll wait a couple of minutes, if we don't hear from them then we'll have to attack and assume they're dead,' I returned.

Not even a few seconds later red, green and white jets of light were being shot through the air in front of us with the sound of Harry and Hermione screaming spells.

'Run through now and gun down anything that moves!' I shouted.

We went in and it felt like facing an army, even though there were only a total of fifteen zombies left. It was hard to see as most of the trees blocked out the sun's light and the zombies seemed to blend in with the darkness. Loud cracks and thumps filled the air from the guns, and light flashed from what seemed like everywhere.

When the last zombie fell and the last shot was fired everything went deadly quiet and no-one said a word; all that could be heard was our heavy breathing.

'Has anyone been bitten?' Tony finally asked.

'No,' everyone said in union.


	6. Chapter 6

As we ran back to the house the sound of gunfire still rang in my ears. When we got in we sat in silence for a while before everyone got something to eat and one by one, went off to bed until it was only me and Loki left.

'Aren't you going to go and get some rest?' Loki asked.

'Someone should keep watch, just in case, and anyway, I'm not that tired.'

'Not now, but what about later?'

I shrugged, 'I'll think about later when it comes.'

Loki moved to sit by me, 'do you mind if I stay?'

I shook my head, glad that he'd offered, 'not at all; I'd like the company.'

'You know, when you get tired I'd be glad to take over.'

I smiled at him, 'thank you, I appreciate it. I think it's going to be a long night, but hopefully the hunters won't stray too far from the city.'

'I think you'll be right. Scouts and hunters stay together in packs, right?'

I nodded, 'yeah, they work together. It's kind of weird to think that the dead are actually quite organised, but it's like they work off instinct, like animals.'

'I see... but how did this all happen?' Loki asked.

'Popular opinion says it's a virus that's spread, but no-one really knows how it was created or how it spread. I don't think anyone will ever know,' I sighed.

'I'm sure everything will be fine, in time. Bruce and Ava are working hard, they'll find a cure, I'm sure of it.'

'Hmm, yes… it's weird, on the day of the first outbreak I was supposed to go on my first mission, it was only small, but then all hell broke loose. I was just like every other newbie, I thought I knew everything from training and so I refused to stay quiet, and I guess I just wanted to be like the Avengers. It's not until you're actually out there that you realise you're helpless and don't know anything at all.'

'I know, I remember my first battle; it didn't end well for me.'

'What happened?' I wondered, turning my head up to look at him.

'It's all kind of a blur. I remember charging head first into the enemy and then the next thing I know I woke up in the healing room about a day later.'

'I nearly had my face chewed off by a zombie on the first day. It wasn't pretty, I had rotten blood and flesh all over me; I smelt vile.'

Loki chuckled, 'how did you get into meeting refuge groups like us anyway?'

'Well, S.H.I.E.L.D. are still operating in secret as best as they can. They don't consult with anyone now though, so they're known as being in lockdown officially. Fury sent me basically because there was no-one else _to _send; I'm hopeless really, only a last resort.'

'I think you're doing a good job, considering the circumstances.'

I sighed, 'three people are dead.'

'They weren't your fault, there are always casualties in war; these things can't be avoided. But just look at what we did earlier, we kept the zombies away from the house and no-one was hurt, you were in charge of that.'

'It was your plan though; it was brilliant.'

'My plan or not, you were still in charge of pulling it off.'

I smiled and rested my head on his shoulder, 'thank you.'

'Don't mention it,' Loki smiled back, putting his arm around me and resting his head on mine.


	7. Chapter 7

One Month Later   
I sat, by myself, on the windowsill looking out for strays. It was about two in the morning now and there had been nothing for a good three hours.

My head fell forwards as my eyes slowly closed only to snap back open again.

'Tired?' I heard Loki ask as he entered the room.

I nodded, 'and hungry too,' I replied as my burning stomach growled.

'I'm not surprised; you skipped lunch today,' he said, coming over and kissing my cheek.

'Well, I'd rather not, but I think Tony suspects we're up to something.'

Loki shrugged, 'you're not really up to anything, I'm the one taking it.'

'Yes, but I'm eating it. On this planet receiving stolen goods is just as bad as stealing.'

Loki rolled his eyes, 'do you want this or not?' he asked pulling out an energy bar from his pocket.

'You know I do,' I grinned holding out my hand for it.

Loki smirked as he handed it to me, 'how mischievous of you.'

I giggled at his remark, 'you're the one taking it.'

'Make up your mind,' he laughed softly.

I just shrugged and began to eat. It didn't taste very nice, but it felt good to quench the burning in my stomach, 'you know, when this is all over I'm going home and I'm going to have the biggest bag of chips imaginable.'

'I don't want to imagine what'll happen to me when I get home, but it'd be nice to eat good food,' Loki sighed in reply.

'Maybe, after this is all over Odin will be lenient. You are redeeming yourself after all by helping us.'

'I suppose… but when are you coming to bed?' he asked, changing the subject.

'Ava's taking over in about half an hour, thank God.'

Loki nodded, 'good, I'll leave you to it then,' and with that he walked out of the room, gently closing the door behind him.

Not even five minutes later, I turned to see Ava standing in the doorway. She startled me a little, as she just stared at me, with her darkened, tired eyes. I stood up to question her, 'Ava, are you ok? You've still got plenty of time left to rest.'

'Only about twenty five minutes, there's no point really. You must be tired anyway?'

'Well, yes, but are you sure?' I asked, cautiously, sensing that something was off with her.

'Yes, I'm sure,' she snapped.

She had me on edge for some reason, she seemed to be acting odd, but I left, putting it down to my own paranoia and tiredness. Just as I reached the door she called out to me, with slight malice in her voice, 'I hope you're not too hungry; I noticed you skipped lunch today.'

'I'm fine…' I replied, her remark hitting me deep in the stomach and making it churn.

I slipped into the make shift bed on the floor next to Loki. He was already asleep within only five minutes, I sighed and wished that I could get to sleep as fast as he could.

Even though I was already tired I found it hard to sleep. What Ava's remark seemed to be constantly in my thoughts, keeping me awake, until my eyes stung and I found it physically impossible to keep them open any longer.


End file.
